The Cape: Not With A Bang…

You may have though you had seen the last of The Cape. You were wrong. This “very special, unaired episode” is available on nbc.com, right here. If you were hoping for complete closure on the story, you may be a disappointed but it’s a solid episode nonetheless and worth your time. Besides, now that February sweeps are over, a lot of shows are in repeats right now. So here is a recap of this super special final episode of The Cape.

In a move that rapidly moves the plot forward, ARK has been implicated in a city wide conspiracy with Palm City’s organized crime faction. Surveillance footage recorded a conversation between Mick Reese from ARK and Scale, “accused smuggler, Crime Lord,” which is really an awkward title for a business card. He’s a CRIME LORD but he’s “only” been accused of smuggling. That’s not so bad! Anyway, the video is bad news for Peter Fleming, right?

Wrong. He’s going to pin this on Marty. Part of me is actually rooting for Peter here because I’m not such a fan of Marty. Peter calls for a raid on Marty’s house and has him arrested as the ringleader for all the corruption within ARK.

Peter talks to Marty in the interrogation room and promises to take care of Marty’s family in exchange for Marty taking the fall. Too bad, so sad, Marty. Vince hopes Marty spills the beans that Peter is Chess which will allow him to hang up the cape and return to the land of the living. Dana, ever the beacon of hope for Palm City, offers to take Marty’s case. She somehow still likes Marty, which, I guess. Marty hesitates but seems like he may be willing to make a deal. Sad Marty feels really, really sad for all the pain he caused.

Peter and Scales go to a tailor to be fitted for suits because THAT’S WHAT YOU DO when the going gets tough. Let that be a lesson to all of you. For Peter’s sake, I hope their tailor isn’t pulling a Sun-Hwa Kwon* on them.

*Cape/Lost Note: Pulling a Sun-Hwa Kwon refers to faking not knowing English. But I’m sure you all knew that.

Peter wants the Dana problem taken care of immediately. The Cape is on high alert as some parking lot thug attacks Dana but Vince does his cape magic and tosses him through a car windshield. Well played, The Cape. Ladies love being rescued by a masked man with some excessive violence of their own.

Marty has been released on bail but not all is well. It wasn’t Dana who posted bail which means it’s a setup! Vince dons the cape and deflects a bullet with the cape, stopping the assassination attempt(s) on Marty. Vince tosses roughly five smokescreens which allows them all to escape somehow. As someone who has been part of a Copperfield disappearance trick, let me assure you that it takes much more than smoke to make people disappear. It also take flashing lights, loud music, and “Hey, what’s that over there??”

DANA STILL DOES NOT RECOGNIZE HER HUSBAND despite talking to him from 2 feet away several times now. Vince brings her and Marty to Trolley Park to hang out with the carnies and Orwell because sure, why not. I doubt Peter Fleming would ever look for them there. Marty confirms to Dana that Vince was framed which offers her little solace at this point. Call me crazy, but I think Vince could use this opportunity to rise from the dead and let Dana know. Sensing this, Max reminds him that it isn’t time yet effectively ruining the the moment we have all been waiting for.

Hey, remember Orwell? She says that someone has been watching her which is the opposite of “Orwell is Watching,” get it? Wow, this episode is getting all serious with this Marty, Dana, and Orwell stuff. Where is the cape-tastic enemy-thwarting? The Cape doesn’t solve problems by talking! He solves problems by using his cape to pull heavy objects onto his enemies!

Oh no! ARK tracked Marty’s daughter’s cell phone to the most likely place that they were hiding in all of Palm City! What are the odds? Rollo and Max lead Marty’s family out as ARK attacks. Who is leading ARK? Why, it’s everyone’s favorite scaly thug, Scales! Upon seeing The Cape and Marty, Scales takes the shot but Marty uses himself as a human shield and takes the bullet for Vince. More ARK people show up but they are not there to help Scales; they are there to arrest him!

As Marty lies dying, Vince reveals that he is The Cape and Marty doesn’t have to die thinking he killed Vince. “You saved him, bro.” Marty dies and someone, somewhere, sheds a tear for him.

Orwell takes Dana and Trip home and tells her that “Vince loves you.” Present tense. Think about that, Dana. Have some faith.

Back at Trolley Park, Max pulls out a bottle of Vietnamese snake wine. Has he been drinking this the whole time? That really explains a lot. He got it from a guy named Karma Daniels who believed it gave the drinker immortality. Kind of like Four Loko.

“To Karma.”

“To Marty.”

And so The Cape ends, not with a bang, but with a shot of Vietnamese snake wine. It would be silly to break down the open-ended aspects of this particular episode and this truncated season. Maybe if they had reached 13 episodes instead of 10, there would be more significant closure. Still, I feel there is more hope for Vince reuniting with Dana and Trip than ever before and that hope should be enough to keep all of them going.

This final episode actually wrapped up a couple major story lines and felt like a mid-season finale. Marty’s redemptive death salvaged his character. The repercussions of his death would be interesting to follow in hypothetical future episodes. Perhaps more shocking, the ARK good guys apprehended Scales and shipped him off to Owl Island Prison. As wildly entertaining as Scales was, I have to think this was a last minute change. I thought there would be a symbiotic relationship between Scales and Fleming for a long time to come.

This bring us to Orwell, perhaps the greatest waste of all for The Cape. Love her or hate her, Summer Glau has not had the best of luck with television series. Fanboys and fangirls alike loved her in Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and a brief stint on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Of all of those, T:SCC was absolutely my favorite and still well worth a look on DVD. That was my most frustrating cancellation of the last few years.

Orwell never really developed as a compelling character. Now, part of this is simply because she was in the middle of a much longer arc and cutting it in the middle made it all seem pointless. Was she really just a computer geek with daddy issues? I wish she could have been more of a butt-kicking super-heroine who could rival/assist The Cape. She’s far and away the biggest missed opportunity for The Cape.

Now that’s it’s all over, I’m fairly ambivalent towards the series as a whole. It had some peaks in episodes such as “Dice” and “Tarot.” Speaking of, I wish they would have dove into the Tarot crime ring more. Embrace the symbolism! They could have done a Tarot theme every other episode and I think it would have been great. Who do those assassins work for and how did they get their respective call signs? There was a lot of potential there. They were a highly specialized league of assassins. What’s not to like? They could have supplemented the Peter Fleming as Chess main arc.

I know that The Cape never caught hold of an audience but I’m glad I stuck around. It had a different take on the superhero genre with a dash of ridiculousness. That’s all right with me. There are a lot of shows I would shelve on the DVR before watching the absurd fun of The Cape. Thanks for reading and following along!

The Cape is totally over but Brent is also watching The Event which airs on Mondays at 8 p.m on NBC.

3 Responses

In the beginning, I was really into this show. But, like you said, how can his wife and son not know that the cape is Vince? It’s not like his voice changed. I guess the cheese factor is just a little too much for me. But, it’s still a fun show. Same goes with V, I loved season 1 but this season I didn’t feel it as much. Thanks for your recap!

Brent, thanks for blogging this final episode, which I wouldn’t have watched if you hadn’t let us know it was available online. I generally liked the show – Keith David, James Frain, and Martin Klebba (Rollo) were the highlight performers for me; David Lyons was also quite good and Summer Glau never got the chance to explode. In this ep I was frustrated with the raid on Marty’s house – the moment could have gone much deeper if the thought hadn’t been, hurry hurry, we must establish this plot point and move on. Same for Marty’s jail interview with his wife; the scene could have had a lot more emotional depth. I think Marty could have been an interesting, conflicted character; but the “Marty gets redemption and dies” turn also made dramatic sense. Oh, and I (too) loathed the teleporting smoke bombs. Hope The Event (which I’m not watching) is worthy of your continued attention.